Conventional physical therapy may be used to aid a subject having impaired muscle control, which may include general manipulation of the muscle to increase muscle relaxation. Typically, a provider may work with a subject to determine limitations in muscle control by assessing muscle length and gross strength. Subsequently, the provider may provide the subject with a preferred set of exercises targeted toward increasing gross strength of the impaired muscle. This approach may focus on alleviating symptoms of pain, swelling, tightness, or the like, as opposed to focusing on the underlying cause of these symptoms to restore normal physiologic function and biomechanics of muscle control.
The underlying cause of symptoms related to impaired muscle control such as pain, swelling, tightness, or the like, may be neuromuscular inhibition resulting from an incomplete or complete inhibition of neuromuscular transmission. Generally, neuromuscular transmission occurs at a neuromuscular junction, where neurotransmitters can be released from a prejunctional nerve ending, traverse a synapse, and bind to receptors on a postjunctional muscle membrane. Overall, the neuromuscular transmission signaling cascade can result in the transfer of an action potential from a motor neuron to a muscle fiber, resulting in muscle contraction. However, when the function of one or more components of the neuromuscular transmission signaling cascade is compromised, neuromuscular transmission may be either partially or completely inhibited.
Because conventional methods focus on alleviating symptoms of impaired muscle control and may not focus on modulating neuromuscular transmission, there would be an advantage in an inventive method which acts to increase muscle control or modulate the neuromuscular transmission signaling cascade to decrease neuromuscular inhibition, which in turn can act to increase muscle control.